Baldur's Gate: The Zero Reload Saga

On the way to the tanner’s we get a nice little banter. Viconia asks Korgan if he’s ever interacted with her Drow house, and he responds that yes, he burned it to the ground and urinated on the ashes.

I suppose that’s about the best you can expect from someone with a Charisma score of 7.

Into the establishment of Rejiek Hidesman, the man behind the gruesome murders that have been taking place in this district. Once again we find ourselves deprived of the clever option (subduing him immediately, taking him to the garrison and then presenting the evidence we found) and simply have to proclaim “WE KNOW IT WAS YOU WHAT DONE IT!”, thereby giving his plot armour ample time to activate and allowing him to escape.

Yes, plot armour. You know what I’m talking about. That inexplicable invincibility that certain NPCs mysteriously develop whenever the game decides you aren’t allowed to kill them yet. There is a rather sneaky way around this involving the use of Time Stop and Shapechange, but sadly, we’re not even close the level we’d need to be at in order to use those spells.

We follow Rejiek into the basement, taking care to disable Party AI so that nobody goes chasing after him and blundering into the traps strewn around here. Good news, though; the experience we got from disarming said traps was enough to push Vespero up another level, bringing him ever closer to release from dual-class related suckage.

Also, Viconia blurts out “I swim in memories in a place such as this”. In this murky, dilapidated basement filled with flies and flayed corpses. That pretty much sums up everything you need to know about Drow culture, right there.

We’re in for a fight when we head downstairs, so we take the opportunity to buff up beforehand. Vespero’s going to stay upstairs for the moment, because as squishy as he is right now, the last thing we need is him getting backstabbed by the assassins down here.

By the way, have I mentioned yet that enemies being able to BACKSTAB YOU FROM THE FRONT is a load of festering bullshit? Because it is.

We have Jan enter stealth mode (surprisingly, he gets it on his first attempt) and head downstairs, where he is accosted by a mage in Rejiek’s service in spite of the fact that he isn’t supposed to be visible. The fact that he openly converses with someone in the room sure doesn’t tip any of the other enemies off about his presence, however, giving him plenty of time to launch a Bruiser Mate at the assassin to stun him.

Which doesn’t work. Damn.

Jan hightails it back upstairs. The Ghasts follow us, but the assassin seems to stay put, which works in our favour. Korgan and Jaheira score a couple of solid criticals and the Ghasts go down without much trouble.

Now to deal with the assassin. Jebus, but this guy’s a lot tougher than I remember him being. Almost as soon as I get downstairs, he backstabs Korgan before I can do anything about it, then proceeds to slice Jaheira RIGHT the hell up, leaving her in critical condition. I mean, damn. The woman’s AC is at -3, for god’s sake. THIEVES ARE SUPPOSED TO HAVE TERRIBLE THAC0.

Anyway, we still managed to off him without losing anyone, so now it’s time to loot those crates and get out of here. As always, we get the first component of the mighty bow of Gesen down here, as well as some useless Hide amour, scrolls of Monster Summoning, Improved Invisibility, Project Image…

…wait, what? Project Image? AWESOME. This is one of the most overpowered spells in the game, and I’ve never got this scroll down here before. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever found this scroll at all; I’ve always had to buy it from a store. What a stroke of luck. This is going straight into Vespero’s spell book. Not that he can use it yet, but still.

Time to go. We’ll make a quick trip to report our findings to Aegisfield, then head to the Five Flagons for some rest. Need to keep those spell slots filled.